Thursday, October 9, 2008

Is A Comprehensive Market Anarchist FAQ Long Overdue?

Sure, I'm aware of this one and this one. But neither one can hold a candle to the Anarcho-commie FAQ. Seriously: their FAQ is a million times better, guys. And it has been an extraordinarily effective recruiting tool for them. Why not give our own side for people to read?

I would like to see a comprehensive Market Anarchist FAQ that discusses the history of market anarchism, the ideas and disagreements of different strands of market anarchism (mutualists, ancaps, agorists, philosophical anarchists and so on), criticisms of minarchism and collectivism, and perhaps some rebuttals to the other FAQ. It should also be somewhat entertaining and tongue-and-cheek. Basically, it would be our own version of their endlessly-quoted-and-linked-to FAQ.

Just a thought. And maybe not even a good one. But who else agrees that we need an FAQ more like theirs?

12 comments:

Ironically, if I recall correctly the AnCom FAQ was started explicitly to attack anarcho-capitalists and evolved from there (though I may be thinking of a different one). Which I frankly think is complete bullshit.

I think responding to the criticisms shouldn't involve attacking the AnCom folks though, because I think the "not a real anarchist" crap is far to prevalent and nonsensical. It's like an atheist living under a Christian theocratic dictatorship criticizing Buddhism.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I also think this would be a really fun project. I'm considering running this around other market anarchists (at anarchism.net, anti-state.com, etc) to see if there's any interest.

You'd need to include a lot of philosophies if you're going to do a market Anarchist FAQ. Market Anarchism doesn't merely include Rothbardian Anarcho-Capitalism, but Friedmanite Anarcho-Capitalism, Agorism and the Mutualism of Proudhon, Tucker and others. These are all really separate strains of thought that come under one label. And then you have the possibility that people call themselves 'market Anarchists' as a general description without any affiliation to any current of thought.

It would be important to represent these ideas equally so you that don't just end up with a plug for Rothbardian Anarcho-Capitalism.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Caplan's FAQ. I thought it was the best known. Thanks for the other two you mentioned. I'd never seen them. http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/anarfaq.htm

Rorshak, "An Anarchist FAQ" started in the midst of the Usenet debates of ten years ago, when the terms of the discussion were very, very different. The level of hostility on all sides was much higher, the sources relating to individualist anarchism were much, much more difficult to get your hands on, and many of the people most active in the "middle ground" positions, like mutualism, were not yet active or not yet market anarchists.

I only know a handful of market anarchists who have done as much market anarchist history as the authors of that FAQ. And there is a lot more of that research (and translation, etc.) to be done, probably, before we can do anything "comprehensive."